Spanning the lifetime of operation, an aircraft will experience repeated and harsh conditions resulting in degradation of component parts of the aircraft. Such degradation may take the form of, for example, corrosion and subsequent metal fatigue and fracture. Corrosion can contribute to a decrease in the integrity and strength of aircraft components. More specifically, a material system comprising aircraft components, such as fuselage or skin panels, a coated lap joint between two metal panels, or a wing-to-fuselage assembly on the exterior of an aircraft, may corrode over time due to exposure to mechanical and chemical stresses during use of the aircraft. Before a material is determined to be suitable for use as an aircraft material system, it may be desirable to determine the material system's propensity to corrode. However, performance of aircraft material systems, such as panels, during actual, real world use of the aircraft seldom correlates with corrosion testing data. Furthermore, corrosion tests often lack consistency between tests. For example, variability is observed when similar material systems are corroded in different testing apparatuses even though the testing conditions are nominally similar. Material system corrosion during actual use versus corrosion experienced during testing is particularly disparate when the material system comprises alloys or the material system has surface finishes, primers or top coats applied to the material system. Furthermore, conventional processes for testing corrosion are not effective at controlling the environment at any particular site on or within a test material system.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for methods and apparatus with controlled exposure environments for determining operational environment-specific performance, lifetime assessment, and failure mode investigation, i.e. an exposure environment that more closely mimics the conditions a material system will experience when incorporated as a component of an aircraft during actual, real-world use.